Mama said there'd be days like this

NASAThe International Space Station is so large now that its outlines are visible in backyard telescopes. Here's a view through a 10-inch Newtonian reflector.

If you're looking for a day to play hooky, if you can, this would be that day. If not, no worries, for there will be more days like this, more and more with each passing week.

We can expect a high temperature all the way up to 63 today, over 10 degrees above normal, on healthy southwesterly breezes. Skies will be sunny, at least at first. Clouds, alas, will start to lower and thicken as the day wears on, but this is still a day to put the sweaters and winter coats away.

You may want to bring them back for Thursday, however, or the next day. Our chances of rain for Thursday have improved, up to around 70 percent courtesy of a cold front. But we're still only looking at about a tenth of an inch of precipitation, tops.

The space shuttle Discovery docked yesterday with the International Space Station, where astronauts are preparing to install a pair of 115-foot-long solar wings, the largest deployable space assemblies ever built.

We're mentioning this here because this particular mission coincides with an orbital path for the ISS that will take it right over North America for the next several days. You can see it! Brighter than any star, the station takes about five minutes to cross our night sky.